Could Apple soon join Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as a major player in the home gaming market? The J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall seems to reckon that it could, having just revealed his predictions for the expected new Apple TV with enhanced gaming capabilities.
In a note sent to investors today, Hall expressed his confidence that, in 2016, Apple could shift 24 million units of the new Apple TV that is looking very likely to be launched at Apple’s big media event in San Francisco tomorrow. He additionally cited his firm’s belief “that the combination of graphics capability and an app store in the product could be disruptive for existing console players and positive for game (developers)”.
Hall has also estimated big financial benefits for Apple; specifically, that the Cupertino company could grow its 2016 earnings per share by 3.3% as a result of upping its game – to use a wonderfully apt pun – in the gaming market, which has an annual worth of $35 billion.
It could be argued that, in a sense, Steve Jobs already made Apple influential to games players and developers. The hugely successful Angry Birds, for example, actually started life on an Apple platform. Building on its strengths by entering the home gaming market therefore seems a sensible path for the company to follow.